Until yesterday, you could only apply for a Concealed Pistol License once per calendar year. For most of us, this wasn't a big deal as we've never had a problem from our county clerk, however, it has been a big problem for some.

Take Marcus Weldon for example. Marcus was tried and found not guilty for a self-defense shooting back in 2014 in Detroit. Yet even a year after being found not guilty by a jury, Wayne County still hadn't cleaned up the record indicating he was subject to the conditions of his bond, even after multiple attempts by his attorney. This eventually resulted in an application to get his CPL back being denied earlier this year.

Unfortunately, even though the denial was due to the extreme incompetence of Wayne County, and was in no way Marcus' fault, due to the limit on how often one can apply for a CPL, Marcus was barred from applying again until January the following year. Thankfully, this will no longer be a problem for him and others like him.

When SB 219 was first introduced it contained a change in the limit form a “calendar year” to a “12-month period”, which would have only made the problem worse.

Thankfully, we were able to work with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Runestad (R-White Lake). With his help we managed to not only turn back the damaging 12-month period proposal, we were able to eliminate the frequency limit altogether.

The limit made absolutely no sense in today’s system where applications can be processed quickly, and the agencies who process them make a considerable amount of money doing so (over 8 Million in the last fiscal year for the MSP alone). Worse case scenario, if someone wants to keep giving their money to these government bodies, why should we prohibit them from doing so, especially when it comes at the expense of good people being forced to arbitrarily wait to be able to protect themselves.

With SB 219 ‘17, now PA 95 of 2017, going into effect, this will no longer be a problem.